


For richer, for poorer

by S_Horne



Series: A May Medley [29]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 12:32:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19020001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S_Horne/pseuds/S_Horne
Summary: “I do love you,” Steve hastened to say. He took a deep breath and wet his lips. “So much. Which is why I have a question for you.”Tony yawned again and closed his eyes. “Is it what I want for breakfast? Because that’s got to be bacon. Or pancakes. Haven’t decided yet, actually, so give me five.”Steve smiled and brushed a loose curl back from Tony’s face. “No. I’d like to know if you’d marry me.”ORNational Paperclip Day





	For richer, for poorer

**Author's Note:**

> I mean... paperclip day??
> 
> Day Twenty-Nine: _National Paperclip Day_

“Morning.”

Tony’s voice was beautiful in the morning, deep and husky and such a turn-on that Steve just had to lean over and kiss him. “Morning, gorgeous.”

“I heard you get up in the night,” Tony said, his mouth half buried in his pillow as he rubbed at his eyes.

“Mm. Needed the toilet.”

“Right.” Tony yawned and reached out to stroke his hand over Steve’s neck. “You were gone a while.”

Steve tilted his head down to catch Tony’s hand between his cheek and his shoulder and smiled. It was true, but Steve hadn’t realised that Tony had noticed. Steve had been hunched over the kitchen table second guessing every decision he’d ever made in his life and it had taken him quite a few hours. The sun had started to rise before Steve had snapped himself out of his own head and slipped back into their old, lumpy bed. “Miss me?”

“Always. It was cold.”

Steve yelped when Tony suddenly kicked out and stuck his cold feet onto Steve’s legs. “You’re forever cold.”

“And yet you love me anyway.”

Steve took a little too long to reply and Tony pulled away with a squint.

“I do love you,” Steve hastened to say. He took a deep breath and wet his lips. “So much. Which is why I have a question for you.”

Tony yawned again and closed his eyes. “Is it what I want for breakfast? Because that’s got to be bacon. Or pancakes. Haven’t decided yet, actually, so give me five.”

Steve smiled and brushed a loose curl back from Tony’s face. “No. I’d like to know if you’d marry me.”

That woke Tony up and he finally lifted himself off the mattress, blinking down at Steve in confusion. Wild horses couldn’t have stopped Steve’s smile at the sight.

“Wait, what?”

Steve didn’t move. All of the fears and the worries he’d felt during the night disappeared in an instant with the look of shock and barely-concealed hope in Tony’s eyes. There was no way that he was doing the wrong thing.

“I want to marry you,” he said again, this time with confidence. “I want you to be mine, I want to be yours forever.”

“Really?”

“Yup.” Steve rolled over and reached behind him for a little box he’d stuffed under the mattress. “Hang on. I…” With a sigh, Steve held the box out to Tony. “This is all I have.”

Tony took it with a squint. “The romance has really gone, huh?”

Steve gave a low chuckle and stroked a finger down Tony’s cheek. “Sorry, sweetheart.”

Dropping his eyes down to the small box between his hands, Tony shrugged. “I’ll forgive you. If you make me pancakes.”

“Of course I will. If you’d like to give me an answer.”

“Oh. Did I not do that part yet?”

“No,” Steve said with a growing smile. “You did not.”

“I’d better got on that, then,” Tony replied. “But I guess it all depends on…” As he opened the lid of the box, his voice trailed off.

Steve held his breath. Choked on it, more like. Scratch whatever he’d told himself seconds before, because all of his nerves had come back with a vengeance. The butterflies in the pit of his stomach seemed to be mating with tigers, clawing at his insides and making him feel positively ill. How could he ever think that _that_ would be enough for Tony?

Things had never been easy for Steve. As a young boy he had been near-constantly ill and had therefore racked up a huge amount of debt in hospital fees. His mother, though working all the hours that she possibly could, could only earn so much as a single parent in New York. Somehow they had scraped together enough to send Steve to college where he had met Tony, a recently-disowned electronics student who was in need of a roommate to help him pay the rent of his ridiculously-rundown apartment.

Things between them had moved quickly and, before Steve even knew it, he had been sharing Tony’s bed for months and couldn’t imagine his life without the man he loved by his side. Which had led him to his realisation.

He wanted to marry Tony Carbonell, no matter what. They couldn’t exactly afford a wedding, though. They couldn’t even afford a ring – last month’s rent and a replacement boiler had completely ruined them. It would be a couple of months living on noodles and bread, especially as the art studio where Steve often picked up a couple of hours of work had closed for renovations, leaving him with only his coffee-shop job. With no spare cash to buy anything to make a ring, all he had were the necessities he’d borrowed from his art teacher for his latest project.

Tony Carbonell deserved the world and the only thing that Steve could offer him was a borrowed piece of metal.

“Is this a paperclip?” Tony pulled out the ring – if it could even be called that – and blinked down at it, shock all over his face.

A dark flush flooded Steve’s face and the butterflies flew up into his throat. His own brain was screaming at him: though he had absolutely no money in the bank account, almost to the point that it was ridiculous to even have an open one in his name, he should have done something more. Steve had racked his brain for _weeks_ to find an alternative to an engagement ring and come up blank.

Because he had needed to give Tony something. He just had to; there were no two ways about it. Steve needed Tony in his life, needed him to be his forever, and a proposal was the only thing that Steve could think about.

There had been a slurry of sleepless nights with Steve bent over the kitchen table by the light of the moon fiddling with pliers and paperclips. He’d drafted a few sketches of a final design, ones with twists and loops to take the thin piece of flexible metal to something that Steve could present as a ring. He had a fair few cuts on his hands, but he had twisted the very last paperclip in his jar into something resembling jewellery. It had actually been a piece that Steve was almost proud of.

He’d straightened the paperclip out into a long piece of metal and then used looping pliers to twist the two ends into tight swirls. Though it had looked passable in the darkness of a low morning sun, in the cold light of day in Tony’s hands Steve was struck by just how idiotic the whole idea was.

A paperclip. How stupid could he have been?

Tony had grown up in money, whether or not he had it anymore, and he’d grown accustomed to certain things. Steve couldn’t compete with Tony’s old life, couldn’t offer anything close to what Tony deserved.

“It’s not much,” Steve said into the worryingly-long silence. “In fact, it’s _nothing_. I know it isn’t and I know that it’s not what you – mphf!”

Tony’s lips interrupted Steve, a passionate kiss swallowing his next words. Even taken by surprise, Steve reached for Tony, settling his hand on Tony’s bare hip and letting his mouth fall open to accept Tony’s exploring tongue.

“Yes,” Tony whispered against his lips when he pulled back. “Oh my God, Steve. _Yes_.”

“Really? You’re saying yes to the office supplies?”

Tony brushed another kiss over Steve’s mouth, then another on his jaw. A third went to the apple of Steve’s cheek and a fourth to his nose. “I’m saying yes to the fact that you made me a ring. That you actually _made_ me a ring.”

“I did.” Steve reached blindly for Tony’s hand, wrapping his fingers around the other man’s tightly. “And one day, when I can afford it, I will buy you the best ring on offer.”

“Don’t want it,” Tony said against Steve’s hairline, kisses being dropped between words. “I want this one, from when we were young and poor and in love.”

Steve grinned, relief washing over him and Tony’s love echoing in his ears. “What about when we’re old and rich and in love?”

“I can have two rings,” Tony muttered petulantly. “Could even have one for every day of the week, but I’ll always want this one more. Because this means you love me. You love _me._ The real me, with not a cent to my disowned-name.”

“I do.” Steve squeezed Tony tight and lifted his chin to find Tony’s lips. “Now and always.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [I posted a pic of my tattoo if anyone was curious](https://s-horne.tumblr.com/post/185229604274/forever-my-love)


End file.
